Saturday, June 23, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The One Thing You Must Believe To Be A Great Goalie
There will be times when your belief will be tested.
There will be people who tell you otherwise just to protect your feelings.
But the one thing you must believe, the mindset that you have to adopt no matter what...
is that every shot can be saved.
No matter who shoots it. No matter where it comes from. No matter how hard or how soft a shot may be. You must believe that you can save it.
We have a very unique situation as goalies in field lacrosse. Goaltending in field lacrosse is harder than any other position in sports. The net is 6 feet by 6 feet. The ball is shot at extremely high speeds at a range very close to the net. Not to mention the shooter can stop his shot in the middle of his follow through and fake the goalie out of his shorts.
But even with all that it still breaks down to the goalie seeing the ball as it leaves the shooters stick, recognizing where it is going, and then moving fast enough to get something between the ball and the cage.
If at some point in the process, if you don't believe you can stop it, you're done. You should stop right now. Because if you don't believe in yourself, you won't be a great goalie.
I'd love to get your comments on how you feel when the shooter is bearing down on you. When he's just off the crease, winding up to take your head off. How do you feel right then? Do you believe you will make the save?
There will be people who tell you otherwise just to protect your feelings.
But the one thing you must believe, the mindset that you have to adopt no matter what...
is that every shot can be saved.
No matter who shoots it. No matter where it comes from. No matter how hard or how soft a shot may be. You must believe that you can save it.
We have a very unique situation as goalies in field lacrosse. Goaltending in field lacrosse is harder than any other position in sports. The net is 6 feet by 6 feet. The ball is shot at extremely high speeds at a range very close to the net. Not to mention the shooter can stop his shot in the middle of his follow through and fake the goalie out of his shorts.
But even with all that it still breaks down to the goalie seeing the ball as it leaves the shooters stick, recognizing where it is going, and then moving fast enough to get something between the ball and the cage.
If at some point in the process, if you don't believe you can stop it, you're done. You should stop right now. Because if you don't believe in yourself, you won't be a great goalie.
I'd love to get your comments on how you feel when the shooter is bearing down on you. When he's just off the crease, winding up to take your head off. How do you feel right then? Do you believe you will make the save?
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